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EJToday: Top Headlines

EJToday is SEJ's selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest of the day's EJToday postings, called SEJ-beat. SEJ members are subscribed automatically, but may opt out here. Non-members may subscribe here. EJToday is also available via RSS feed. Please see Editorial Guidelines for EJToday content.

"Wall Street may be growing anxious about the negative impact of falling oil prices on energy producers, but the steep declines of recent weeks are delivering substantial benefits to American working-class families and retirees who have largely missed out on the fruits of the five-and-a-half-year economic recovery."

"Drinking water sources in West Virginia are at risk of contamination from more than 20,000 aboveground storage tanks located beyond an area where extra safeguards are required, a report released Thursday said."

"A Northern California man who was convicted of masterminding a plot to blow up two federal facilities and had his 20-year sentence cut short because prosecutors failed to turn over all their evidence to defense lawyers says he was entrapped by a female FBI informant for whom he harbored romantic feelings."

"John Cruden served with U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam, taking his law school aptitude test in Saigon and eventually becoming a government lawyer. Earlier this month, he started a new job running the environment and natural resources division at the Justice Department. For Cruden, 68, the new role means coming home to a place where he worked as a career lawyer for about 20 years."

"A federal judge in New Orleans ruled Thursday that 3.19 million barrels of oil were spilled during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. The ruling means BP now faces up to $13.7 billion in pollution fines for the spill, well below the amount federal prosecutors want the company to pay."

"A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them."

"ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Human activity has pushed the planet across four of nine environmental boundaries, sending the world towards a "danger zone", according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Science."

"The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries issued a report on Thursday that downgraded demand for its crude for 2015, while also predicting slower oil-production growth in the United States."

"Researchers have found that pharmaceuticals and personal-care byproducts persist at low levels miles from sewage discharge pipes in Lake Michigan. And a study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shows that the most prevalent drug in the lake — the Type 2 diabetes medication Metformin — changes the hormonal system of fish exposed to it."

"Pope Francis said on Thursday he believed that man was primarily responsible for climate change and that he hoped this year's Paris conference would take a courageous stand to protect the environment."

"Though partisan gridlock is the political buzzword of the day, it's another kind of grid that's making political sparks fly in Michigan. There, two powerful utility companies — Consumers Energy and DTE Energy — control the lion's share of the electric grid and appear to be behind a new advocacy effort that coincides with the start of a new legislative session."

"Forget lobbying. When Washington, D.C.’s biggest trade associations want to wield influence, they often put far more of their money into advertising and public relations, according to a new Center for Public Integrity investigation."